I'm going to say it. Yes, I'm a Sox fan and always will be but Earl Weaver is my all time favorite manager. JB is right about the sabermetrics comment. He loved the three run homer and didn't care much for the bunt. His teams rarely beat themselves, and IMO Earl was one of those rare managers that could get his team a few extra wins a year himself on his baseball smarts. Plus he was entertaining. Yes MtG he is another big reason why baseball is the greatest game in the world. RIP Earl Weaver.

Earl waited on the 3 run homer way too much for my taste, but what a great manager.

Plus he poured his vast knowledge into Earl Weaver Baseball, the first serious computer baseball game, which still has the best lineup generation ever. I played in sim leagues with the Amiga version

RIP, Earl.

What's funny about the "wait for the three run homer" strategy he used is that in '73 and '74 his Orioles led the league in stolen bases and they were third and fourth in '75 and '76. His teams were built around solid pitching and if he had big boppers in his lineup like Boog Powell and Frank Robinson he was content to sit around and wait for the homers, but he could make things happen when he had a lineup with Paul Blair and Don Baylor. A very good manager. RIP.

The other thing is that "wait for the three run homer" was the last part of the philosophy, only coming AFTER pitching and defense.

__________________The universe is the practical joke of the General at the expense of the Particular, quoth Frater Perdurabo, and laughed. The disciples nearest him wept, seeing the Universal Sorrow. Others laughed, seeing the Universal Joke. Others wept. Others laughed. Others wept because they couldn't see the Joke, and others laughed lest they should be thought not to see the Joke. But though FRATER laughed openly, he wept secretly; and really he neither laughed nor wept. Nor did he mean what he said.

They don't make them like Earl any more. When the Orioles came to town I was sure to be at the game not only to see greats like Blair, Powell and Robinson (Brooks and Frank) but also to watch one of the greatest umpire-baiters of all time. I have to wonder how the thin skinned umps of today would react to a guy like Earl? Let's not forget that Weaver was also prolific tomato grower and had an ongoing "feud" with the O's head groundskeeper over who grew the best tomatoes. Of course, the famed tomato patch would grace the left field territory of old Memorial Stadium until the move to Camden Yards.

Keeping in mind that Weaver may have had the foulest mouth of any manager in recent memory, he and Baltimore broadcaster Tom Marr combined to produce one of the funniest (and obscene) pranks in baseball broadcasting. Apparently the original tape was made in the early 80's and made the rounds of baseball media for years before being posted on the web in the 90s.

Interesting oddity: The years Weaver's Orioles went to the Series, the won thier division with over 100 games. (1969, 70, 71, 79) The years the O's won the east with fewer than 100 wins. ( 73, 74) they failed to win the LCS.